Har Har Mahadev!

There is something about Shiva that intrigues you. I mean he is the most kick-ass, a stoner, super chilled out, rock and roll-ish God of Indian mythology and especially after reading Meluha series, I think I've fallen for him pretty bad (in the godliest of ways of course), but I have. Shivratri is celebrated in so many ways and it is quite a revered festival. There are so many ways to observe it and since it being an all-nighter affair (in which we binge watch old Hindi God movies), it pretty much is awesome (and I don’t mean it because you get to feast on bhaang after).

I’ve been attending Shivratri since I was five and I’ve never really written about the experience of it. I mean imagine that you get a movie marathon and authorized weed after an all-night party, could it be any cooler? I think not! As we all know, there are four prehars, in which Shiva is worshipped and basically prepped up to get married by the third, when married women pray for their husbands and single women pray for a husband like Shiva. The entire process of the puja, where I attend it is done as per vedic protocols and that my friends is so tranquil. So, we have the start of the puja (each prehar has a different name of Shiva that needs to be recited), which is followed by a havaan and then pushpanjali and aarti. This happens the entire night as per the mahurat timings and finally after the last prehar we technically open the fast with bhaang drink and bhaang pakoras.

For me, Shivratri began from understanding and learning about the process of celebrating it. The feeling is amazing because frankly I haven’t seen anyone else do this in such a large scale except big temples so I guess I am lucky that I get to undergo it first hand and share this knowledge and event with others. So much of what our traditions are made of is being forgotten and if there is knowledge out there about it why shouldn’t we absorb it and use it for our benefit.